62 CENTRAL AFRICAN GAME AND ITS SPOOR. 



may be necessary. We would suggest salt, pepper, cocoa, saccharine, biscuits, 

 one cigar, a little barley, and a spare box of matches (the other being in the 

 pocket). 



Your native tracker should carry an axe. 



For a bivouac, several sticks should be stuck in the ground, leaning to 

 leeward, and grass or branches tied on them with bits of bark. 



Some more grass may be put down under the leeward side of this to 

 lie on and the fire made a little further away. 



A pile of firewood should be placed within reach, and a couple of long poles with 

 their ends in the fire within reach of the couch, so that they may be pushed 

 further into the fire during the night as their ends are burnt, without having to get up. 



If it is cold the putties may be taken off and one wrapped round the stomach and 

 one round the neck. 



If any meat has been killed it may be roasted by splitting a cleft in a pliable 

 stick and wedging a piece of meat in. The other end of the stick can be sharpened 

 and stuck in the ground near the fire, being turned at intervals. 



If there is plenty of water soup is the best thing to make, with the meat cut 

 small, the barley, and plenty of pepper. 



The best way of cooking a bird is roasting it " spatched cock " in a cleft stick. 



Water in the bush, however unpalatable it may taste or however unwholesome it 

 may look, is generally quite healthy to drink, and we have drunk all kinds of evil-looking 

 water without suffering any harm. It is only when defiled by human beings that it 

 appears to give typhoid, enteric, &c. The water-bottle should be of aluminium, with 

 a felt cover, and should take an ordinary-sized cork attached by a chain and so 

 fastened that when it rots another can be substituted. 



Natives generally make signs at any cross paths to show those who are coming 

 behind which way they have gone. 



A scratch across a path, or throwing some leaves, twigs, or grass freshly broken 

 off down on the path is called " closing the path," and denotes that that path is not 

 to be taken. 



The hunter will generally march in front of the caravan in case he may meet 

 any game on the way, and that he may see any fresh spoor. He should be careful 

 to see that the side tracks are closed in this way, so that stragglers may find their 

 way to camp easily, as natives are habitually careless about each other's comfort. 



He should also change the loads occasionally and see to their fair distribution, or 

 else the strongest men will always, by virtue of their strength, get hold of the lightest 

 loads. 



